Forest Whitaker, Co-Founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation Tani Austin and Founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation and CEO of Starkey Hearing Technologies Bill Austin walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Members of music group ARIA walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Sheryl Goddard and Alice Cooper walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

ST PAUL, MN - JULY 15: Billy Crystal and Janice Crystal walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Sinbad walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Forest Whitaker walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Robby Krieger walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Mallory Weggemann attends the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Cole Aldrich (R) and guest walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Portia Clark walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Bill Russell (R) and guest walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Kyle Massey walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Darci Lynne walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Quinton Aaron walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Evander Holyfield walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

English rocker Arthur Brown (R) and guest walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Gloria Gaynor walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Frankie Muniz and Paige Price walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Retired NFL tackle Tommie Harris (R) and guest walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

Huey Lewis walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

Don Felder and Diane McInerney walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

Ahmad Rashad walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

Paul Williams and Mariana Williams walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

Film and talent agent Shep Gordon (R) and guest walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

First Lady of Jamaica Juliet Holness walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

Miss Jamaica 2017 Davina Bennett walks the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Kyle Rudolph and Jordan Rudolph walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)

Billy Crystal, Janice Crystal, Co-Founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation Tani Austin and Founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation and CEO of Starkey Hearing Technologies Bill Austin walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Sinbad and Founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation and CEO of Starkey Hearing Technologies Bill Austin walk the red carpet at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefitting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the Saint Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Bill Clinton takes the stage at the 2018 So the World May Hear Awards Gala benefiting Starkey Hearing Foundation at the St. Paul RiverCentre on July 15, 2018. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation )

Former president Bill Clinton made a guest appearance at the 2018 Starkey Hearing Foundation gala in St. Paul on Sunday evening.

“Most of us are here because we think — among other things — that we are better off doing something good for somebody else than tearing them down,” Clinton said. “We believe in holding hands and taking a flying leap of faith instead of trying to drive people apart.”

Clinton, who noted that he was wearing his own set of Starkey hearing aids and that they were nearly invisible, said that half of all hearing issues were preventable and almost all the other cases were treatable, and yet 80 percent of the people who suffer from hearing issues live in places that are too poor to afford hearing aids. And many of them are children, he said.

Clinton referred to a series of videos played earlier at the gala showing people in countries like Afghanistan and Zambia weeping with joy after they received Starkey hearing aids. “Children in poorer countries are seven times more likely to have hearing problems than in countries like our own,” he said.

Clinton’s speech was focused on asking people to give what they could to support the Starkey Foundation, which gives 10 percent of its profits to help others hear.

“They will never grow up to learn, they will never grow up to work, to feel fulfilled unless you help,” he said.

Clinton said he has attended five hearing aid fittings with Starkey Foundation founder Bill Austin in Africa and Latin America.

When Austin said he wanted to give away 50,000 hearing aids, Clinton said he told Austin, “You can do better than 50,000 a year. You can do twice as many.”

As a result, Austin made a goal to give away one million hearing aids by 2020, Clinton said.

“Late last year, three years early, he hit the million mark,” Clinton said.

Starkey Foundation Founders Bill Austin and his wife, Tani Austin, are rich, and not because of money, Clinton said, but because of their service.

“As far as I’m concerned they are the wealthiest people in this country,” he said. “Two million people are able to hear because of them.”

By donating to the foundation, people are “taking a real step for the future of our grandchildren because whether we admit it or not, our futures are tied together.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” was honored for his activism on behalf of hurricane victims in Puerto Rico. Miranda raised more than $2 million to aid in the U.S. territory’s recovery after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Miranda was scheduled to attend the gala but announced Friday that a scheduling change forced his withdrawal.

Composer, songwriter and actor Paul Williams was honored with the Humanitarian Award and sang his Academy Award-nominated song “Rainbow Connection” from “The Muppet Movie.”

The annual “So the World May Hear Awards Gala” is a star-studded fundraising event held at the St. Paul RiverCentre to honor high-profile philanthropists, which have recently included Richard Branson, Jennifer Garner and George W. Bush.

Kristi Belcamino works as a weekend reporter at the Pioneer Press. Her first reporting job was at the White Bear Press. After working as a police reporter at the Contra Costa Times in the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved back to Minnesota. She has worked at the Pioneer Press since 2013.

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